Arterial blood pressure measurements provide valuable information about a patient's condition. The heart's cyclical action produces a blood pressure maximum at systole, called systolic pressure, and a minimum pressure at diastole, called diastolic pressure. While the systolic and diastolic pressures are themselves important in gauging the patient's condition, other useful parameters are the mean (average) blood pressure during a heart cycle, and the pulse pressure, which is the arithmetic difference between the systolic and diastolic pressures.
The importance of arterial blood pressure has spurred the development of numerous methods of determining it. The most widely used method is probably the familiar blood pressure cuff, which consists of an expandable ring (1) inflated to stop arterial blood flow and (2) then gradually contracted. Using a stethoscope, medical personnel listen to the artery to determine at what pressure blood flow begins, establishing the systolic pressure, and at what pressure flow is unrestricted, establishing the diastolic pressure. More advanced blood pressure monitoring systems plot the arterial blood pressure through a complete heart cycle. Typically, these systems use catheters having piezoelectric pressure transducers that produce output signals dependent upon the instantaneous blood pressure. The output signals are monitored and used to determine the arterial blood pressures over a complete heart cycle. These systems are advantageous in that the blood pressure is continuously measured and displayed.
While prior art methods are useful, they have disadvantages. Cuff-type systems require restricting arterial blood flow and are not suitable for continuous use. The piezoelectric-type systems generally require undesirable invasive techniques, costly disposable materials, and time and skill to set-up. However, during certain critical periods, such as surgery, continuous arterial blood pressure monitoring is highly desirable. Therefore, it would be beneficial to have a method of continuously and non-invasively measuring a patient's blood pressure.
Photoplethysmographs are well-known instruments which use light for determining and registering variations in a patient's blood volume. They can instantaneously track arterial blood volume changes during the cardiac cycle. Since photoplethysmographs operate non-invasively, much work has gone into using them to determine blood pressure. In 1983, inventor Warner was issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,700 on a method of determining circulatory parameters, wherein signals from a photoplethysmograph were used to determine arterial blood pressure.
Significant problems were found when investigating the Warner method. Therefore, it is clear that the need for a practical method of continuously and non-invasively monitoring arterial blood pressure has remained.